Energy Resources

Geologic Carbon Sequestration

The Geological Carbon Sequestration Program uses theory along with lab, field, and simulation approaches to investigate processes needed to inform and guide the safe and effective implementation of geologic carbon sequestration.

Highlights

Project

National Risk Assessment Partnership (NRAP)

The National Risk Assessment Partnership (NRAP) — an initiative within DOE’s Office of Fossil Energy and led by the National Energy Technology Laboratory—applies DOE’s core competency in science-based prediction for engineered–natural systems to the long-term storage of carbon dioxide (CO2).

Program Overview

The Geological Carbon Sequestration (GCS) Program uses theory along with lab, field, and simulation approaches to investigate processes needed to inform and guide the safe and effective implementation of geologic carbon sequestration. Through numerous collaborations with organizations leading field projects, the program takes advantage of the unparalleled expertise within EESA.

Key topics of investigation include:

Capacity, trapping mechanisms, and permanence;
Monitoring and verification using remote geophysical (e.g., seismic) and direct surface detection methods;
Enhanced hydrocarbon recovery options;
Leakage and seepage;
Impacts on the environment, including groundwater, induced seismicity, and the near-surface;
Risk-based assessment and certification;
Injection field studies, including fluid sampling at in situ conditions and seismic monitoring; and
Performance prediction (TOUGH suite of codes as a tool).

Support for GCS research comes primarily from DOE-Fossil Energy, with additional support from the Carbon Capture Project (an industry consortium), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the California Energy Commission, the California Air Resources Board, and various other governmental and industrial sources. The largest research projects in the Geological Sequestration Program include: GEO-SEQ (part of our Consolidated Sequestration Research Project) for research in support of international demonstration projects occurring in the Otway Basin, Australia, and Ketzin, Germany; and NRAP (National Risk Assessment Partnership); as well as support to collaborators in Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnerships, including SECARB, BigSky, MGSC, and WESTCARB.

Featured Projects

Project

Consolidated Sequestration Research Project (CSRP)

The Consolidated Sequestration Research Project (CSRP) sought to accelerate and remove barriers to commercial-scale GCS deployment through targeted research tasks.

Project

Core Carbon Storage and Monitoring Research (CCSMR)

The Core Carbon Storage and Monitoring Research Program (CCSMR) aims to advance emergent monitoring and field operations optimization technologies that can be used in commercial carbon storage projects.

Project

GEO-SEQ Project

The GEO-SEQ Project has two primary goals: to develop ways to improve predictions of injectivity and capacity of saline formations and depleted gas reservoirs, and to develop and test innovative high-resolution methods for monitoring CO2 in the subsurface.

Project

Large-Scale Hydrological Impacts of Geological CO2 Storage

If carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) technologies are implemented on a large scale, the amounts of CO2 injected and sequestered underground will be extremely large. The figure above shows schematically the large-scale subsurface impacts that will be experienced during and after industrial-scale injection of CO2. While the CO2 plume at depth may be safely…

Project

National Risk Assessment Partnership (NRAP)

Project

Potential Impacts of CO2 Leakage on Groundwater Quality

LBNL is one of the main international research organizations addressing concerns about potential impact of deployment of CO2 geological storage on the nation’s groundwater resources. A significant body of our work has targeted the possible groundwater quality changes in response to leakage of CO2 from deep sequestration reservoirs if it were to occur. To better…

Project

The Sim-SEQ Project—Understanding Model Uncertainties in Geological Carbon Sequestration

Sim-SEQ was a multi-year U.S. Department of Energy initiative started in 2009 focused on comparing numerical models for GCS—with the objective of understanding and quantifying those uncertainties arising from conceptual model choices. It was a response to past GCS code verification and benchmarking efforts, in that it engaged in model comparison in a broader and comprehensive sense, allowing modelers the choice of interpretation of site characterization data, boundary conditions, rock and fluid properties, among other options.

News & Events

Three EESA scientists receive DOE Early Career Research Awards

August 10, 2017

Three Earth and Environmental Sciences Area (EESA) scientists receive the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science Early Career Research Award for 2017. Congratulations to Nick Bouskill, Charlie Koven, and Neslihan Tas Baas.

EESA Develops New Approach to Restock California’s Groundwater via Almond Orchards, Vineyards

August 3, 2017

Groundwater—the water stored underneath the Earth’s surface between the cracks and spaces in soil, sand, and bedrock—is essential for the California residents and farmers who rely on it for up to 46 percent of their annual water use. Yet during the 2012-2017 drought, the state’s surface water supply was not sufficient to meet demand, resulting in excess groundwater pumping that caused land subsidence of up to 13 inches in some parts of the San Joaquin Valley.

Now a team of scientists at Berkeley Lab’s Earth & Environmental Sciences Area are working with farmers and partners like the Almond Board of California and UC Davis to test on-farm banking, a new approach that has the potential to manage groundwater more sustainably. It’s an improvement on the age-old method of groundwater recharge, the process of replenishing aquifers by infiltrating water from the surface into shallow aquifers.

“On-farm banking has the promise of making the most productive use of the greatest amount of land possible while increasing the reliability and resiliency of California’s groundwater supply,” says EESA scientist Peter Nico, a soil and environmental biogeochemist.

EESA Scientist Builds Cross-Border Collaborations for Geothermal Research

August 1, 2017

Thirty-five years ago, Berkeley Lab’s Earth & Environmental Sciences Area (EESA) scientist Patrick Dobson began his career as a graduate student by conducting field mapping, collecting fluid samples, and learning the ropes from local scientists at the Los Azufres geothermal field in Michoacán, Mexico. During his summer doing field work in Mexico, he met Berkeley Lab’s Marcelo Lippmann, who was attending a symposium on the Cerro Prieto geothermal field, the subject of a collaborative research project between the Lab (funded by the U.S. Department of Energy) and the Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE), Mexico’s state-owned utility.

Now—after decades of leading geothermal exploration projects all over the world, including Indonesia, Central America, and South America— Dobson’s work has come full circle.

Earlier this year, he spent two weeks in Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico as a Fulbright Specialist in geothermal research. Hosted by the Center for Scientific Investigation and Higher Education in Ensenada (CICESE), one of the main hubs for geothermal work in the country, Dobson met with Mexican researchers to share knowledge, identify areas of mutual interest, and explore potential areas of collaboration.

Berkeley Lab Scientists Brief California Science Advisory Panel for Food and Agriculture

July 28, 2017

As two-thirds of the fruits and nuts—and over a third of the vegetables—produced in the United States are grown in California, it’s crucial that the Golden State cultivate healthy soils that are resilient to stresses such as climate change, drought, and groundwater overuse. Now scientists at Berkeley Lab’s Earth & Environmental Sciences Area (EESA) and Biosciences Area are contributing to the effort by sharing their expertise with the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA)’s Science Advisory Panel, a group comprised of farmers, agriculture professionals, and experts in areas such as water, conservation, and resource management. Last week, EESA scientist Peter Nico hosted the panel at the Lab to brief them on research related to developing healthy soils, sustainable groundwater management strategies, and climate-adaptive agriculture.

Susan Hubbard Named 2017 American Geophysical Union Fellow

July 27, 2017

The American Geophysical Union (AGU) has named Susan Hubbard, Associate Laboratory Director for the Earth & Environmental Sciences Area at Berkeley Lab, as a 2017 AGU Fellow.

EESA Scientist to Lead Multimillion-Dollar Geothermal Energy Project

July 20, 2017

Tim Kneafsey, a staff scientist at Berkeley Lab’s Earth & Environmental Sciences Area, will lead a new $9 million project aimed at removing technical barriers to commercialization of enhanced geothermal systems (EGS), a clean energy technology with the potential to power 100 million American homes.

Berkeley Lab will partner with seven other DOE national labs and six universities to develop field experiments focused on understanding and modeling rock fractures, an essential element of geothermal systems. Scientists will use the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF) in South Dakota to create small-scale fracture networks in crystalline rock 1,500 meters below ground.